A GREAT VENTURE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1391, 18 March 1912, Page 2

A GREAT VENTURE.

THE NEW ENCYCLOPAEDIA H £ BRITANNICA. | | "A TJ.NIVBKSITr IX PRINT." | I Arranjrpinenls hare now been com- |9 | :k'tcd by tlui press of tho University of |j } J;i in bridge for selling the new (lltli) eili- ft! j .'.ion of tho Encyclopaedia Britannica M i hroughout tlui Dominion on tho same S3 ■' enns as Ihofo onwhich it was recently Vq | iolil to English subscribers ill advanco [ft C if publication. These terms were with- |j i Irawn in Groat Britain 011 May 31, 1911, H f vhen the publication of the new work ra * vas completed by tho issue of the index |fj ' ,-olume, and sinco that date nn^ increased h j nico lias been 111 force. '1 he Syndics of j| j .ho Press of tho University of Cambridge n t»lt, however, that it was scarcely fair M ; :o the large reading public of New Zea- ! and that they should havo to pay tho |ij uci'oa>ed prico without having lia<l an k| uleriuatc opportunity of buying tho new |j Ivneyelopaedia Britannica on the most. BS advantageous terms offered to advance M subscribers. Puller particulars on this 9 lead appear elsewhere in our columns. £j It will bo remembered that tho transfer if tho copyright of the Encyclopaedia K Britannica from "The Times" to live Uni- 8 rersity of Cambridge, though occurring H it an earlier stage of tho work, was only Rj umoiiuccd about 18 months ago, when tho i| now edition was finally prepared for the s? press. Many will feel that there is a | listinet gain to the Encyclopaedia Britan- js nica in tho change of the headquarters 9 from which this great international work of learning is issued. Without any (Us- 1 paragemont to the great work douo by « "The Times" in popularising the En- | cyclopaedia Britannica, by bringing the a previous edition within the reach of many who would never otherwise have realised their need of such a work or found it # possible, to acquire it, wo may acknowledgo that tho public iii general feel that is u great national newspaper is going sonic- a what beyond its own legitimate sphere | in adding a publishing business to its to multifarious enterprises. Tho present 8 association of tho Encyclopaedia Britan- j| nica with the name and famo of a great y English university means that it appears 3 lieforo the public with commercial aims $ made subservient to those of sound learn- *{ ins and profound scholarship. jja Tho connection between "The Times" w and tho "Encyclopaedia Britannica" only | came to an end uliVr a great deal of work | had been done on tho preparation of tho M new edition, which has 110 doubt profited | by this prestige of the most famous of S existing newspapers in tho way of obtain- S ing the assistance-of distinguished con- ss' tnbutors. Something near nine years ago ;$ —in May, 1903, to be precise—the stupen- 3! dous enterprise of a wholly fresh and M original survey of all extant knowledge |j was undertaken: a competent staff set 3 to work in the olliec of "The Times," uu- & der the direction of Mr. Hugh Cliisholin, fj to bring into volume form the contribu- (8 tions ot 1501) specialists dwelling ia all parts of the civilised world. But as the work progressed it becamo more and moro a apparent that in its scope and magnitude $ it was too vast to be a permanent acccs- | eory to tho activities ot a newspaper. ijj The authorities of the University of a Cambridge were entirely satislied with the '3 solid and scholarly foundations that had A been laid by "The Times," and decided to | lake over tile copyright and entire control 1? of the work. So it conies about that tho foremost work of reference used by tho English-speaking people of the globe has «si its origiu and abiding place in a great 3 learned institution, and lalls into place as M a natural stop in the evolution of the University of Cambridge. H Tho history of Cambridge, from any S point of view, is the record of the dii- §j lusion of knowledge in ever-widening d lireles. Mediaeval Cambridge existed to $ supply tho clergy with ecclesiastical learn- a ing; then tho h'cnaissanco and Heforma- a tion, and their necessary sequel, the grad- gj ual abolition of religious tests, brought a UlO laity within its borders. Later the ft jcciesiastic.il and priestly ideal, that learn- y ing was a privilege of . a few, was still further relaxed, and tho university procincts were thrown open to women. Sim- a nitancously a missionary zeal infused into ra the heart of the Senate urged that the U" laity should not only como to tho univer- a sity, but tho University must go to the a inity, if Learning should perform her per- a I'ect work, and there resulted tho gieat <)\ secular movement of university extension M lectures. Now once again the univer- J sity extends the sphero of its ; nfluence. || Infinitely larger than the audience that a :an bo addressed within tho compass of jsj lecture-room -is the audience reached by m ilio printed page. It is only through its '|j printing press that the modern university S :an establish and maintain direct rela- $ ions with tho whole of the Iviglish- j| speaking world. a Through tho pages of this eleventh p edition of tho Encyclopaedia Britannica ij the professors of a world-wide university a address their students, for the editors ;;j havo been able M draw upon the whole Bj world of learning; not upon (lie Univer- m sity of Cambridge alone, but upon Oxford, j| Edinburgh, Manchester, Jfclboume, Tas- y mania, Paris, Berlin, Gottingcn, Vienna, pi Milan, Harvard, Yale, Chicago, Columbia, g Kyoto, and many others. Distinguished Ifl scholars, men of science and practical expert-, such as Lord Kayleign, Professor V a a't lloil', Professor • Eduard Meyer, KJ Monsignor Duchcsuc, Sir Arthur Evans, fj Sir William Crookes, Sir Tlarry Johnston, M Mr. Edmund Gosse, Sir Philip Watts, Sir ja Itobert Gitl'en, Sir Archibald Ueikie—their M name is legion—and learned societies with- ffl in and without tho universities, have lent U their stores of knowledge to this great gl work, and havo not liesitated to make it: the vchicln for hitherto unpublished t'ii theories and discoveries. It has been well said that the Cam- — bridge edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica is "a university in print," bringing tho highest academic learning of the ivorld within the ken of every purchaser, Dven if lie lives a thousand miles from imy lecture-room. It is even more than that, for at least half the IISOO contributors are not acadciiiic lecturers, but practical experts in the arts and industries— in medicine, law, engineering, commerce, finance, exploration, agriculture, manufacturing industries—-who have paused, as it ivere, in their activities to lav tho fruit , jf 'their experience bel'oro the general * reader. Two important' material features further increase the value of the new edition. 3ito is that the 28 quarto volumes of text -to which a si.-ccial index volume lias jecn added, for tho convenience of inHiirers—were all prepared before a single lage was sent to the printer, and wore :hereforo also published simultaneously. This means that the whole of the manuscript has been under the editorial survey it 0110 time—a real gain as regards comprehensiveness of scholarship, for all the U'ticles will bo up to date, and one will lot contradict another, as often happened 11 previous editions. It is also a gain 'rom the point of view of the buyer, lie vill bo ablp to shelvo the whole of his :mrchase at once, and will not havo to __ iraifc sixteen years, as ho did for the last ~ rolumc of the "Dictionary of National Biography," or twenty-two years, as for the last volume of tho "Oxford English Dictionary," still to como. The other ad- 1 vantago is that the cubic content and the I weight avoirdupois of a spccial impression \ of this edition are diminished by tho use t of opaque India paper, hitherto known j chietiy by its use in tho moro expensive | Bibles published by the universities of : Oxford "and Cambridge. Tho 28 volumes of text, in this .special format, occupy only two and a half feet of shelf-room, | instead of tho seven' foet or moro which i they would require if printed on ordinary . j paper—oll which au impression is also | available for those who insist on bulk. j